Illuminated directory cabinet



I May 18, 1937- c. J. CUMMINGS ET AL I 2,080,308

ILLUMINATED DIRECTORY CABINET Filed April 1, 1936 Rag Fatentecl May 18, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ILLUMINATED DIRECTORY CABINET Clarence J. Cummings and Leslie L. Weimar,

4 Claims.

Our invention relates to directories, registers or annunciators, and has special reference to such devices as may be set up in the lobby of a hospital, public or ofiice building, store or other convenient place where the public passes, and which is adapted to indicate to any person interested whether a certain individual is present.

The objects of our invention are, first, to provide such a directory in which the names thereon are constantly illuminated and in which the presence or absence of the person is indicated by the fact that a small indicator light is illuminated or is dark; second, in which the master indicator is connected to one or more supplementary directories located at various convenient places, as near the elevators on the several floors, and said supplementary directories also have the same list of names constantly illuminated and a corresponding light opposite each name, said light being connected to the light in the master directory so that it is lit when the light on the master register is lit; third, in the case of the medical profession, as in other callings, the tendency is to specialization of work or function of the several persons in the staff, and it is an object of our invention to segregate the several specialists, or functions, by the color of the indicator light opposite his name; fourth, to provide a suitable receptacle opposite each name in the directory into which notes, notices or reminders may be placed for the information of the person whose name is indicated; fifth, to form such receptacles in such manner that they are abundantly large but take but little space on the face of the directory cabinet; and sixth, to provide a device which will speed up and organize the work of the institution or business by indicating at a glance whether any individual is present or is out.

We attain these and other objects by the devices and arrangements illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a master directory and a single supplementary directory, portions thereof being shown in diagrammatic form; Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a portion of the face of the master register; Fig. 3 is a cross-section thereof, taken on the line 3-3 in Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is a vertical cross-section of the message receptacle or rack within the cabinet.

Similar numerals of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The cabinet comprises a box I of sheet metal having a cast metal. front plate 2 removably secured thereto by screws, or otherwise. This face plate 2 is provided with one or more tiers of openings 3, each of which is formed with a groove 4 around its inner edge, into which a glass plate 5 is secured by clips 6, mounted on pins I and pressed against the inner surface of the glass plate 5 by means of springs 8 wound on the said pins I. These glass plates 5 are preferably frosted and the name of the person is either painted thereon in opaque paint or the plate is painted and the name is left translucent. These plates 5 are arranged in one or more vertical tiers and a neon or other vapor-light tube 9 is mounted on the rear wall of the box I substantially opposite the center of each tier of names. The message receptacles provided opposite each name include the openings Ifl formed in the face plate 2, with their major axes at about 45 to the horizontal, and leading to the rack II. This rack I I consists of an appropriate casting secured to the inner surface of the face plate 2 and having a series of inclined shelves I2 corresponding with and coordinated with the said openings In in the face plate 2. Each shelf I2 is inclined to the horizontal at the same angle as the openings III. A bridge I3 joins each shelf with the adjacent shelf at the inner ends thereof, thus forming a brace for the shelves and at the same time forming a stop for the message slips to prevent their falling off the shelf into the cabinet. The depth of the shelves I2, inward from the face plate 2 to the bridge I3 (Figs. 3 and 4), is such 0 that the slip of paper on which the message is written will protrude therefrom a sufficient distance so as to be readily grasped by the fingers to remove it therefrom, and also to receive the rays of light from the hereinafter described cap or lens 22 illuminated by the lamp I9.

The neon light tubes 9 are connected by the wires It to the high voltage side of a suitable transformer I5, the low voltage side whereof is connected by suitable Wires I6 to the power circuit, not shown.

A suitable switch I! is mounted within the cabinet opposite each name and is provided with an appropriate actuating push button I8. An electric lamp I9, of suitable construction, is mounted on a suitable insulator blockand shines through a hole ZI in the face plate 2 between the name plate 5 and the switch button I I8. A suitable lamp cap 22 of selected colored glass is also mounted in the outer side of the hole 2i. p

The supplementary directory 23 is similar to the above described cabinet exceptthat it is not provided with any switches or message receptacles. It is provided with similar tiers of translucent plates 24. The plates 24 correspond with the plates 5 of the master directory and each is provided with names corresponding with those on the master directory. A neon tube 25 is mounted Within the cabinet 23 back of each tier of said name plat-es 24 and these tubes 25 are energized by a transformer 26, similar to the above described transformer l5, for each cabinet, said transformer 26 being similarly connected to the power circuit. A lamp similar to the lamp IQ of the master directory is mounted adjacent each name plate 24 and is covered by a cap 2'! of the same color as the cap 22 of the corresponding name plate 5 of the master directory. This lamp is connected, on the one side, to the particular wire of the cable to which the corresponding lamp iii of the master directory is connected, and, on the other side, it is connected to the common return wire, as hereinafter described.

The high voltage side of the step-down transformer 30 is connected to the power circuit by the wires 3!. One wire 32 of the low voltage side of the said transformer 30 leads to each of the said switches H. The wire 33 leads from the particular switch I? to one terminal of the corresponding lamp 19. The other terminals of all the lamps iii are connected by the common return wire 3 to the other side of the low voltage side of said step-down transformer 36. This wire 34 also enters the cable 35 leading to all the supplementary directories. One wire 36 from each of the said circuits, leads from the wire 33, to which it is attached between the switch l? and the lamp iii, by the said cable 35 to the corresponding light on the supplementary directory. Thus it will be seen that when the pmh button H3 is actuated to connect the common wire 32 with theparticular wire 33, the current passes through the particular lamp l9 and back to the transformer 35 by the common return wire 34, and a parallel current simultaneously passes from the said particular wire 33 by the particular wire 35 in the cable 35 to the corresponding light of the supplementary directory and returns therefrom to the transformer 30 by the common return wire 34 in the cable35.

It is evident from the foregoing that, in the case of a hospital, all the doctors and surgeons of the community would have their names on the directory, which would be arranged alphabetically, and that each would have his own light colored to conform to the standard specialties, so that all the orthopedic physicians would have, say, a red light, while those making a specialty of the ear, nose and throat wouldhave, say, a yellow light, and so forth; similarly, in an office, the several types of employment would be indicated by different colored lights. A doctor, on entering the hospital, would immediately go to the directory and press the button opposite his name, thus causing his light to be lit on the master directory and on all the supplementary directories in the building. The telephone operator would thus always be advised of the presence or absence of each particular doctor at all times, thus greatly enhancing her efiiciency. Any message which she may take over the telephone, or any announcement of special clinics, or other note would be inserted in the proper receptacle to be received by the doctor in entering or leaving the building. On leaving the hospital he again goes to the directory and pushes his button l8, thus breaking the connection between the common wire 32 and the particular wire 33 and deenergizing his particular lamps in the several directories and informing all that he has left the hospital.

It is, of course, understood that there may be many variations made in the details of construction of such an illuminated directory without departing from the spirit of our invention, as outlined in the appended claims.

Having, therefore, described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:-

1. An illuminated directory cabinet comprising a constantly illuminated list of names; a secondary light adjacent each particular name; a lens for each secondary light and protruding from the face of the cabinet a switch controlling each said secondary light; and a message receptacle adjacent each said secondary light, whereby a message slip projecting from said receptacle may be seen by the light from said secondary light.

2. An illuminated directory cabinet, as set forth in claim 1, wherein each said message receptacle comprises an inclined opening in the face of said cabinet and an inclined shelf within the cabinet and coordinated with said opening.

3. An illuminated directory cabinet, comprising a constantly illuminated list of names and a plurality of message receptacle openings in the face of the cabinet, one adjacent each of said names; and a rack secured within said cabinet and comprising an integral body formed with a series of inclined shelves, each said shelf coordinated with one of said openings in the face of said cabinet to form a receptacle for individual message slips.

4. An illuminated directory cabinet as set forth in claim 3, wherein said shelves are braced together at their inner ends, said braces forming stops to prevent the message slips from leaving the shelves.

CLARENCE J. CUMMINGS. LESLIE L. WEIMAR. 

